Be There
by Hisa-Ai
Summary: "She just wanted to be some place safe. And somehow, that place turned out to be in Danny's arms. The only place in the world she felt whole anymore." Ghosts that are out to get Danny have crossed the line and taken human life, upsetting life for Danny and his friends. Could there be time to adjust to these changes and pursue revenge and romance all at once? DxS.
1. Bullet From A Gun

**So the other day I was in the shower and thinking about Danny Phantom – ew, not like _that_, you perverts. I _mean_, I was just thinking about the fic I posted the other day and then my mind started wandering to DP and fanfics in general and I was going through ideas I had for different DP fics and trying to figure out which one I should build off of, when an idea just hit me and I started working it out and, well, you know how that sort of thing goes. So for the past few days I've been working through this chapter and going over things in my mind and trying to work things out. I would like to tell you that, at this point, I have everything figured out and I know exactly where I'm going with this fic, but I don't want to start our relationship out on a foundation of _lies_, so here's the deal:**

**As of typing this right this second, this is the only chapter I have written up. There are more writing themselves in my mind as we speak, but nothing that I have down on paper yet. **

**I have no idea where I'm going with this. I want it to be a Danny/Sam fic – seriously, who doesn't love that pairing? – and I know the basics of everything, but that's pretty much it. I know a few conflicts that are going to rise up, have a very loose plot line, planned out a couple of scenes that I definitely want to include, but right now the big picture is just sort of... _evading _me. But once I get everything figured out, I'll... let you guys know. Maybe.**

**So, basically, I'm starting this story with little knowledge of where it's going to go. Two points for winging it! **

**Okay, knowing that, I'd like for everyone reading this to know that it may be up to a couple of weeks before I get the next chapter up. I know, you guys must be outraged, especially given the way this chapter ends...**

**Alright, so one other thing you should know is that this is _pre_-Phantom Planet. Danny and Sam aren't dating yet, the world is still completely ignorant of Danny's secret, and all that good shit. That's just the way I planned it. I believe they're sophomores here, but it doesn't really matter, does it? **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this first chapter!**

**Disclaimer: **Sweetheart, if I owned Danny Phantom, I would probably be loaded, and if I was loaded, do you know what I would do with all that money? I would hire the best scientists I could find and make them build me a Ghost Portal of my own. Then I would have them set everything to the way it is in Danny Phantom, go into it while they're "fixing it" with a hazmat suit on, push the 'on' button, get my ass some ghost powers, and then fly off happily into the sunset to find myself a ghost boy. Now, since I have yet to do any of those things, I think it's safe to assume I don't own Danny Phantom, in any sense of the word. Oh, I also don't own "Bullet From A Gun" by The Script. I don't own The Script, either, for that matter. If I did, I would _never_ stop listening to Danny – lead singer of The Script – talk, but c'mon, he's Irish and Irish accents are _hhhhhhhot_. But I digress...

* * *

_**Be There.**_

A_ Danny Phantom_ fanfiction

**By:** Hisa-Ai.

Chapter One:

**Bullet From A Gun.**

* * *

Sitting in English class, looking down at some printouts and listening to Mr. Lancer read some poems aloud, Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley couldn't help but think about what a terribly boring day it'd been so far. It was one o'clock on the dot and, so far, there hadn't been much drama. No ghost attacks, no Dash shoving Danny into a locker, no Paulina messing with Sam, no pop quizzes or fights, no trivial gossip or secret slip-ups, nothing but school work.

The trio had trudged dully from class to class as the hours all melted into one another, looking over their shoulders as they waited for something – _anything_! – to pop up or for word of some drama or another to reach them. During their lunch period, they had all been so high-strung, so _sure_ something was going to happen, that they couldn't enjoy their meals and had, instead, chosen to use their lunch period to patrol the area, something usually only reserved for Danny on days when there was a plethora of ghost attacks, but in this case was more than needed to soothe their nerves.

Usually, it wasn't a _bad_ thing when the ghosts decided to take a break from terrorizing the town, but when that happened things usually trickled down, whereas in this case they just abruptly _stopped_. One day they were attacking in hordes and the next, they were doing nothing, not a damn thing. And that scared the trio; at least if the ghosts were attacking they _knew_ what they were up to, but if they were doing nothing, Danny, Sam, and Tucker had no way of knowing what they were up to or if they were planning something bigger than normal. And that really did scare them.

However, their lunchtime patrol proved to be frivolous, so the three trudged to their lockers then English class with their heads down in thought, each of them lost in dark fantasies of what the ghosts could be up to, what their next moves might be…

And each of them was coming up with jack shit, if they were to be honest.

They didn't know what the ghosts were up to, what they could be planning – because they were _definitely_ planning. There was no way they _weren't_. If only one of the three could figure out just _what_ they were planning, then the day wouldn't be so bad anymore and they might be able to relax just a bit. But since that didn't seem as though it was going to happen anytime soon, the three sentenced themselves to worrying and wondering for the rest of the day, which, they would admit, wasn't _that_ far off, but was still _much_ too far off at the same time. While the hours seemed to slip and melt into one another, the minutes of those hours seemed to go by suspiciously slowly, giving them yet another reason not to pay much attention in any of their classes.

"Manson, Fenton, Foley! Are you three paying attention?" Mr. Lancer demanded from the front of the room, shaking his packet of poems at the trio. All three of them jumped and sat up in their seats, their heads snapping towards the front of the room. Mr. Lancer was glaring in their direction, awaiting their responses as the rest of the room erupted in giggles and whispers of "Bus-ted!" Without thinking, all of them replied that they were, though with such a lack of enthusiasm that no one in the room believed them in any sense of the word.

"Oh really?" Lancer asked threateningly, turning his attention back to his packet of poems, skimming over the one they'd all just read before turning the page and scanning it as well. A moment of awkward silence followed where everyone looked between them and Lancer and the trio all looked at one another with wide, concerned eyes, something about the whole damn day so far felt so… _off_. So… _wrong_. They were all so off their games and worried, not paying attention in class _or _their surroundings. At some point, they all started to wonder if maybe they should just duck out of school early, hit the Nasty Burger and then do some patrolling instead of hanging around this place all day, getting in trouble in class, ignoring everything that went on around them when they weren't hyper aware of it… Maybe they should just cut their losses, ditch the rest of the day, and get caught up the next one, it wasn't as if they would miss much, anyway…

"Alright then," Lancer started up again, making them jump once again. He rolled up his packet and tapped it against his other hand as he continued. "Since you three are paying such _great_ attention, you wouldn't mind reading the next piece aloud for the rest of the class, would you?" he raised an eyebrow at them and looked all three in the eye somehow simultaneously. They looked at one another nervously, none of them knew what they were even supposed to be _looking_ _at_, let alone which one they were _on_; how were they going to get out of _this _one?

It seemed as though not even the Universe wanted them to go through the humiliation of having to admit to Lancer that they weren't paying attention, however, because just as Lancer said an impatient, "We're waiting," the door to the classroom flew open and a secretary from the office – a mousy woman with big, thick brown hair and a set of petite, blue rimmed glasses who always wore clothing that was borderline inappropriate for someone who worked as a high school secretary – came rushing in, offering a piece of folded up paper to Lancer as she whispered something into his ear, blocking her mouth with one of her hands so as not to be over-heard by prying ears.

As Lancer listened to the woman, who stood five inches shorter than he did, Danny, Sam, and Tucker all let out sighs of relief and sunk down in their chairs, relaxing slightly.

"_That_ was a close one!" Danny breathed, pressing his hand to his forehead.

"I'll say! I have no idea what we're even doing today." Sam agreed, taking a moment to look over the packet in front of her before giving up on it two lines in and pushing it away from herself.

"I haven't paid attention in a single class we've been to today." Tucker added, shaking his head.

"Me neither. It's just… _too_ damn quiet. Like, what are they all _up_ to? Things never die down like this, not just all of a sudden. It's just… putting me on edge." Danny admitted. Sam tucked a thick strand of her hair behind her ear and scratched her scalp carefully, chancing a glance in the direction of Lancer and the secretary, what was her name again? Miss… Julian? Julie? Julia? Jules? Something with a J sound, Sam was sure. What was she doing in Lancer's English class, anyway? The only time an office secretary ever showed up was when someone was in serious trouble, _or_ there was a serious emergency for one of the students, so which was it? Or was she just looking for an excuse to thrust her chest in Lancer's face? Ugh, she _hoped_ it wasn't the last one, because she didn't know that she would be able to keep what she had actually eaten of her lunch down if she found out _that_ was her reason for being there…

"So what do you think the secretary wants?" Danny asked, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the two, Lancer was mumbling something back to her, his face filled with nothing but grief and concern. If someone had been in any kind of trouble, he would have been yelling by this point, so that meant there was some kind of emergency… Sam's stomach dropped as she entertained the notion that the emergency concerned her or one of her friends, but she quickly shook it off; if something had happened to anyone they knew or cared about, they would have gotten a call directly on their cell phones, or… or something.

No, the emergency couldn't concern any of them. It had to be about one of their classmates, but which one remained to be seen…

"She has some sort of message for Lancer there, so it's either her number or someone's in trouble." Tucker said, though even _he_ shuddered at the thought of the secretary hitting on Lancer in the middle of class.

"Or there's an emergency." Danny added, leaning forward on his desk, resting his face in his hands as his elbows framed his printout.

"Yeah, that, too. Who do you think it's for?"

"Don't know. Could be anyone." Tucker shrugged at his friend's words and put his feet up on his desk, confident that it had absolutely nothing to do with him.

"Well, _we_ haven't done much today, so I know none of us are in trouble." Danny shrugged, turning his attention back to Sam. He sat up straight in his chair as he smiled at her, then raised a questioning eyebrow at her, studying her face for a moment as he mulled something over. He looked as though he was going to say something to her, but before he could manage to get even a syllable out, Lancer turned away from the secretary and locked his eyes on Sam sadly. The look in his eyes unnerved her in the most dreadful of ways and she knew what he was going to say before anyone else did, just from the look he was giving her…

"Samantha, sweetheart?" he started tentatively. Her stomach dropped as all eyes in the room swerved to her, the room suddenly so quiet she was sure everyone had heard her stomach's descent. Danny and Tucker both sat up, eyes just as wide as hers, suddenly even more stressed than they'd been the entire day. Somehow, without needing to hear any more from him, they knew that they had been right; it _had_ been too quiet all day, the ghosts _had_ been up to something. And they had pulled it off, whatever it was. But what was the damage? What had they done? "Pack up your things and go with Miss Julia here to the office… I… I'm afraid there's been a terrible accident." He announced, his voice heavy with concern and sadness.

Sam swallowed, had he just said there'd been an accident? She swore she blacked out for a second there, because nothing seemed to make any sense anymore. They had just been sitting there, worrying about ghosts _not_ attacking, and now Lancer was looking at her, calling her by her first name, adding an endearment, the whole class staring at her wordlessly, not even the snarky Paulina or the moronic Dash uttering a single word, just staring at her along with the rest of the class… What had Lancer said happened again?

"C'mon, Sam." Danny whispered, gathering up both his and her things and handing them off to Tucker, who piled them on top of his own things. Danny grabbed her by the elbow and gently helped her up, moving her towards Lancer and Miss Julia slowly; moving against every second like a bomb would go off if they moved too fast. Close behind the pair, Tucker moved ever so carefully, not wanting to drop a single item from his monstrous stack, but not saying a word about it, not complaining in the least.

As the three got to Miss Julia and Lancer, not one of them complained or protested about Danny and Tucker following her, seemingly knowing that there was no way she was going to be leaving that room without one or both of the boys. They almost seemed to be expecting it of them, actually, as they barely batted an eye at their presence.

Danny wrapped an arm around Sam's shoulders and rubbed the goose bumps off her arm, his own quiet way of soothing her. She would have been grateful for Danny then, but her mind was spinning around in a loop, trying to make sense of everything all over again, her day playing back in her mind. She was just trying to figure out where things had gone wrong, the moment when her day had suddenly become so fuzzy…

Miss Julia thanked Lancer and turned about on her heel, leading them all out of the room. Her heels clicked daintily on the floor as the door swung shut and the hallway engulfed them in its silence, which was even worse than the silence of the room they'd just left. Their trek down to the office was deathly silent, no one daring to breathe a word, not Miss Julia to offer any more information, not Sam to ask any questions, not Danny to try to comfort Sam, and not Tucker to complain about having to carry all of their things. No, now was not the time for something as meaningless and intruding as words…

Once they made their way down to the office, Miss Julia opened the door and held it open for all three teens to enter before her. Inside the office, it was even quieter. Not even the fan that was usually going when one went in there in the middle of the day was on, presumably being broken or just having been turned off by Miss Julia before she left to go fetch Sam.

Against the wall opposite the office door was a line of five chairs, all dark blue and with backs pressed against the wall below a bulletin board coated with announcements and flyers of all sorts for events passed and events future, the whole thing a mishmash of colors that made Sam sick to her stomach. Other than the wall of announcements, there was nothing particularly noteworthy of the office other than a few phones, a couple computers, a spot on the wall for the teachers' mail, and another doorway that led to the principal's office – just a normal high school office, complete with stale air that smelled like a combination of cheap cologne and office store supplies. But to Sam, it felt as though Death himself was standing in the room with them, looming over all of them, his glare threatening and _daring_ them to say even a single word…

She didn't see how she would ever be able to rise to his challenge.

"I called your parents, Danny, Tucker." Miss Julia said once they were all inside the room. Tucker walked over to the dark grey counter in front of the computers and slumped all of their things down on it, the thud resonating through the small enclosure and making Sam flinch. A few of the papers and books on the top of the stack slid down, some landing next to the pile, some choosing instead to land on the floor, but no one made a move to pick any of it up.

"Tucker, your parents are on their way to the hospital and, Danny, your parents are on their way here to pick you four up; Mrs. Mershaw, the other secretary, went to get Jazz from class as well. If you'd like to take a seat while you wait, I have to get some papers ready for them to sign." She explained carefully, eyes darting away from Sam once she dropped her sympathy off. Sam nodded and let Danny steer her to the chairs.

As she plopped down in her chair, her mind went over some of what Miss Julia had just said, as she was still trying to play catch up with it all, but she still knew, somewhere in her, what all of it meant, what was being said and what it added up to. She couldn't bring herself to ask about what had happened or who had been hurt, if they were okay, if they were _going_ to be okay, but she knew that all of that would be explained to her soon enough, anyway. And, as odd as it seemed, a part of her didn't _want_ to know. The longer she remained truly ignorant of what had happened, the longer she could go without feeling as much pain as she was sure she would feel once she _did_ know...

Danny kneeled in front of Sam and took her hands, trying to get her to look up at him, and when she did, he gave her the half-smile that she loved so much, but she couldn't bring herself to smile back. Not this time.

"I… Sam, you're going to be okay." He promised. Not, _are you alright_ or _everything's going to be fine_ or even _I'm sure they're fine_, but _you're going to be okay_. She liked that answer better than any of the alternatives, because it meant that he cared enough about her to give her the truth and trust that, no matter what happened at that hospital, her future wasn't going to be all bleak and hopeless. He might have been clueless and dense, but even he knew what to say occasionally.

"Tucker," Danny said suddenly, turning away from Sam for a second to address their other friend, who was currently trying to squeeze information about the accident out of Miss Julia.

"Yeah, dude?" he asked, turning away with disappointment when it became apparent that Miss Julia either didn't know much else or she just wasn't in a position to share what she did. Either way, it was disappointing.

"Go to our lockers and get our things, would you? Yours, Sam's, and mine. And hurry up; if you're not back when my parents get here, we're leaving without you." He warned, turning his attention back to Sam. Tucker nodded and ducked out of the office then, sprinting briskly down the hallway and out of sight of the glass windows.

Danny breathed a steady, concentrated breath out through pursed lips and ran his free hand through his hair, still clutching one of Sam's hands in his own. He gave her a comforting squeeze and tried to meet her eyes again, but she wouldn't take the bait, her mind had wandered too far off, trying to figure out what had happened… What did the ghosts do? Had they… _killed_ her parents? How would they have done it, though? And _why_? What was she going to do if they had? Sure, her parents were over-bearing, much too conservative, pink, and so non-non-conformist that Sam sometimes wondered if she wasn't adopted, but they were still her parents, damnit! And hell help her if she didn't love them! And what about her grandmother? The only one in her whole family who seemed to understand and accept her as she was? Had they gotten to her, too? God, what was she going to do?

"Sam…!" Danny whispered, rubbing his thumb along her cheek. Silently pouring down her face was a stream of tears, making her make-up run and leaving her with nothing but a black smudged face with her salty tears trailing down it, painting it dark and desperate, sad and lonely, hollow and distant… Danny felt a pang in his heart and stood up abruptly then and, without thinking, pulled Sam up and into his arms, pressing her against his chest and wrapping his strong arms around her. She brought her arms up around his back and gripped his shirt, allowing herself to relax and let the tears flow more freely now, just a bit.

"Danny…" She mumbled, choking back a sob. She hated Danny to see her like this, but she couldn't hold it back, she couldn't stop the tears from flowing freely down her face, staining her face, his shirt, and her façade. But none of that mattered. She could wash her face, he could get a new shirt, she could build herself back up, but she couldn't get a new family…

"Sshh, I know, Sam. I know." He soothed as a sob escaped her, tightening his hold on her slightly as she shook in his arms. He couldn't help her, he couldn't make her stop crying – hell, he could barely stand to see her cry in the first place – he couldn't fix whatever the ghosts had done, but he knew one thing for sure: whoever had done… whatever it was that they'd done – because Danny still didn't know _what_ they'd done yet – they would _pay_ for doing it. Dearly. Every. Single. One. Of them.

"Danny! Sam! What happened? What's going on? Is everyone alright?" Jazz demanded, flying through the door with the second secretary – an older woman with light brown hair that she had fluffed out in front of her face in an attempt to hide her greying hairline – close at her heels. Mrs. Mershaw, the second secretary, held the door open for Tucker, who came bolting in seconds after them.

Trying to keep his voice level and calm, Danny moved slowly so he could see his sister and best friend over Sam's shoulder before answering. "We don't know, Jazz. All Lancer said was that there'd been a terrible accident. And he used Sam's full name. And he called her "sweetheart." But that's pretty much all he said. Miss Julia said Tucker's parents were on their way to the hospital and our parents were on their way here to pick all of us up. Other than that, we don't know a thing."

Jazz pursed her lips and looked over his position, his arms wrapped protectively around Sam, her head buried against his chest, shaking with sobs, probably staining his shirt – No. They knew something else, something they weren't telling her. Maybe they couldn't, not in front of Miss Julia and Mrs. Mershaw, but what – Oh. God.

It had something to do with ghosts. It had to; otherwise, Danny would have told her. All three of them probably already had it all figured out in their minds, what they thought had happened, what they thought the damage was, and if Sam, of all people, was in _tears_ over it… Well, then it couldn't be good. And if they were right, about whatever they were right about, that meant… something bad. Ugh, it was so _frustrating_ not knowing anything! She wouldn't know much, though, for a long while. At least until she could get Danny or Tucker alone, which probably wouldn't be happening anytime soon…

"Well, have you tried calling anyone?" She asked slowly, moving towards the counter to help a struggling Tucker pack the messy pile of school things into the three backpacks he had. It didn't matter what went where, as long as everything was put in a pack, it would be fine; they could sort out what was whose later on, after… Well, after the dust settled and school seemed important again.

"Who are we gonna call, Jazz?" Danny asked, exasperated. If they were right, they _couldn't_ call Sam's parents, Danny's parents were going to be there any minute anyway so there'd be no point in calling them, and Tucker's parents were probably already at the hospital, finding things out, so to disturb them would probably be unwise if they wanted to find anything out themselves when they got there. No, there wasn't a soul in the world they could call to find anything out.

With a sigh, Jazz shook her head and zipped up the purple backpack in her hands. Who were they going to call, indeed.

* * *

**The ending of this chapter feels incomplete, yet at the same time it felt like a perfect spot to end things. And I mean, it wasn't the perfect chapter, but I never really like first chapters, anyway. The next chapter will hopefully be better. I almost promise.**

**I feel as though I should explain the chapter title to you guys. Basically, what I decided was that name of the chapters for this fic would be song titles. Oh yeah, real original, right? Just shut up and listen for a second guys, 'kay? So, anyway, they're not going to be just random song titles, they're going to be song titles that I feel go with the chapter, or if there are certain lines of a song that I think of whilst writing or editing a chapter, I'll have the chapter be the title of that song. So in this case, "Bullet From A Gun" is a song by The Script off their second album "Science & Faith". The lines that I thought go with this chapter are as follow:**

_What's done is done  
__Can't resurrect the setting sun  
__What's done is done  
__Oh you can't reverse the bullet from the gun._

**So, yeah, interpret that whatever which way you want to, that's just where my mind went with this chapter. And for those of you who are wondering, yes, I probably will include a few song lyrics from the chapter title/song in every chapter. But it will, more likely than not, be in an A/N so as not to interfere with the story itself. And hey, if anyone ever has a song that they instantly think of whilst reading any of this, feel free to let me know what it is in a review or a PM; I'd love to hear about it. **

**I feel as though I should warn you that there may or may not be some OOC-ness in this fic – five stages of grief, anyone? – but I'm not entirely sure yet. I mean, obviously the characters are going to be acting a bit differently, but given the circumstances, I don't know if it'd really be considered OOC, you know? No, you probably don't, but you wi-ill. Soon, my pets, soon...**

**Also, I don't know if you guys were able to figure it out from what I hinted at through-out the chapter, so I thought I might as well ask: What do you think happened? Why were they pulled out of class? Why is Sam crying? First one to guess right gets free virtual cookies!**

**Anyway****, be sure to let me know what you think!**

_Always,  
~Hisa-Ai~_


	2. Exit Wounds

**So last time we spoke, I said it would be up to a couple of weeks before my next update on this story, but apparently I lied, because here I am with an update. My fingers just couldn't help themselves., they started typing and playing around with this right after I posted the first chapter and they finished it quite quickly, to be honest. But I had to let it set for a few days before I went back to proof-read, and it's a good thing I did, because I caught a few mistakes that spell check didn't. I remember rereading this one sentence about a million times because for some reason it didn't sound/look quite right, but I couldn't figure out what the hell was wrong with it. So finally I just had a sort of "a-ha!"/"duh!" moment where I realized that I had been reading the word "said" as "sad", which is why it didn't look right. So I took out the 'i' and everything else just sort of fell into place from that moment on. Moral of the story: Don't trust spellcheck, kids; that bitch'll lie to your face and mess your story up so fast you won't even know what hit you. I was one of the lucky ones, but every day spell-check has thousands – nay, _millions_ of victims that fall prey to its trusting eyes... For those of you who plan on going out on a limb and trusting spell-check completely... I shall pray for you.**

**Alrighty then, I have officially weirded myself out, so, with that in mind, enjoy chapter two of Be There!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Danny Phantom or anything else that I might imply that I own. So, for future references, trust me about as much as you trust spell-check, which I hope isn't much, but hey, I won't tell you how to live your life...

* * *

_**Be There.**_

A_ Danny Phantom_ fanfiction

**By:** Hisa-Ai.

Chapter Two:

**Exit Wounds.**

* * *

As soon as Mr. and Mrs. Fenton arrived at the school and quickly slapped their signatures on the papers Miss Julia shoved under their noses, Sam, Tucker, Danny, and Jazz were out the office door, practically running to the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle/RV and leaving Jack and Maddie blinking after them for a second before regaining their wits and running after them, not one of them bothering to shout parting words behind them to the secretaries. There really wasn't any sort of time for that.

Once everyone was strapped into the RV – Maddie and Jack in the front and the kids in the back, Sam next to Danny next to Tucker next to Jazz – Jack took off, barely flying through the streets at the accepted speed limit.

Somehow or another, they made it to the hospital without getting pulled over – thanks in large to Danny, who was making the assault vehicle invisible and/or intangible when he needed to so they _wouldn't _get pulled over and ticketed; that was not something they needed to happen right now – and Jack parked the car, sliding into the first empty parking spot he came upon. Throwing open all the doors, everyone got out of the car and made a beeline for the hospital entrance, taking the two flights of stairs that started at the curb and went up to the door two, three at a time.

At the door, Tucker hung back for a brief second, weighing his fear of hospitals against how much his friend needed him at the moment, but moved in with the rest of them when Danny looked back and shot him a look; Sam would over-come _her_ fears if _he_ needed her to, he conveyed with his angry blue eyes. Tucker nodded and held his breath as he walked through the automatic doors to avoid being hit with the smell of antiseptic, cough syrup, and, well, death and sickness, as that was, more than anything, what freaked him out the most when he first entered any sort of hospital, doctor's office, or nurse's office. Once he needed a breath, though, he let out his stale air through his mouth ever so slowly and breathed back in through it, trying to get himself used to the scent slowly, though it probably wasn't the brightest idea in the world whilst running down the hallway, he figured being a little light-headed was better than passing out completely…

The Amity Park Hospital/Emergency Room was only one floor high, but that _one _floor more than made up for its lack of other floors by the mere _size_ of it. Usually, the enormous size of it never failed to amaze Sam and Danny on the handful of occasions that they'd had to be inside of it, but they had never been inside of it under these conditions and therefore had little time to marvel at it this time around.

Right when you entered the hospital, the first thing you noticed – other than the strong odor – was the reception area, which was a circle kiosk like place with glass all around and four different women inside of it, one on each side. Each of the women had a computer and a phone sitting near her with a wall of different sorts of files making a cross between them. In this particular hospital, there were about six or seven of these reception areas scattered about, all placed strategically where people would, more likely than not, get the most use out of them. The rest of the kiosks had both men and women working in them, this one being the only one to be filled with all women.

Under normal circumstances, the reception area was where one would go to first when first entering the hospital, but in this case, Danny, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Mr. and Mrs. Fenton just rushed right past them, already knowing where they were heading, so it seemed.

On the side of the hospital they had entered on – and there were five different entrances – past the reception area and the gift shop, there was a hallway that led to a set of double doors with a big, red, glowing sign that said "Emergency Room" on it, beyond which was the open area of the emergency room, each patient separated by curtains to make things easier on doctors and hospital staff. Just a bit before the entrance to the ER and in the hallway leading up to the ER, there were lines of rooms with chairs outside of each of them and numbers and letters written above each of the doors. These rooms were reserved for patients who came from the ER and needed either more in depth help, or who were being admitted from there period. Sitting outside one of the rooms just before the ER were Tucker's parents, each with grim expressions on their faces.

"Angela! Maurice!" Maddie called as they neared them. Both Foleys jumped out of their seats at the sight of the group and swallowed as their eyes landed on Sam. She was just a kid; how were they going to bring themselves to break this news to her? She was going to find out eventually, but how could they look her in the eyes and crack her world down the middle? But they supposed it was better to hear it from someone she knew than some random doctor who would use words that were too big and just freak her out by prolonging the deliverance of the final blow…

Sam, Tucker, and Danny were at the front of the group, standing nearest Tucker's parents and the rooms they were sitting outside of. Sam tried looking around them in hopes of seeing into the room to try to piece things together herself, but all the doors in the hall were closed. That did not make her feel better by any means. She looked back at Danny and shook her head, biting her lip to keep from crying, Tucker's parents weren't this quiet – especially not his mom. No, this was worse than she thought it was going to be, wasn't it?

"Mom! Dad!" Tucker started, looking from his friends to his parents, finally used to the strong smell the whole hospital seemed to be emitting. Danny reached over and grabbed Sam's hand, and held it tightly in his own as they prepared themselves for any sort of news. "What happened? Are Sam's parents alright? Why were we pulled out of school?" Tucker asked worriedly. His parents glanced at him then back at Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, exasperated. From the look they were giving them, they figured it was anything but good news, and as such were about to suggest the kids go wait elsewhere while the adults talked, but they knew that there would be no getting rid of them. Not when it came to this. With a sigh, Maddie shrugged her shoulders and nodded for them to continue.

"Sam, why don't you sit down?" Mrs. Foley asked gently, gesturing to the chair she had just been sitting in, but Sam shook her head; she was fine where she was right next to Danny. Where she knew she was safe. Where she knew there'd be someone to catch her if she fell.

Mrs. Foley sighed and looked to her husband, wondering if he was really going to make _her_ do it or if he would share the burden, but he just shook his head at her, he wasn't exactly looking forward to this either…

Sam pursed her lips as her blood started boiling with anticipation and anger, would they just _spit_ it out already! It was bad enough not knowing anything the whole ride over, but now that she was where she could find things out the only people among her who knew _anything _weren't talking… If she wasn't sure Danny would stop her, she would have gone off and found someone who _would _have told her something. As it was, she was already upset; why were they making this so much harder on her than it already was?

"Sam, honey…" Mrs. Foley finally started again, having given up on her husband being the one to break the news. "Your parents and grandmother, they were… there was an accident," Sam inhaled sharply; it was one thing to hear that from Lancer, a teacher who hadn't known anything at the time he had delivered the news, but it was another thing entirely to hear it from people who had spoken with doctors and _knew_ what was going on. It made the whole situation just seem so much more… _Real_. She tried desperately not to notice the look both Mr. and Mrs. Foley were giving her, tried not to read anything into her tone, but… She knew, anyway, how her sentence was going to end. Preparing herself, she squeezed Danny's hand and bit her lip. Now she was ready to take the hit. Well, as ready as she would ever truly be. "And… I'm so sorry, sweetheart, but…" Mrs. Foley's eyes started to water even before she finished, giving it away entirely to everyone else.

Jazz let out a gasp as she realized where Mrs. Foley was going with this. Even as she tried desperately with her family and friends to hang on to the hope that it wasn't as bad as it could be, she knew, in the pit of her stomach, that it _was_ as bad as it could be, as it could _ever_ be. She looked around Danny at Sam and saw the Goth's face was as pale as any ghost she had ever seen, not to mention stained with her black make-up. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying not too long ago, and once Mrs. Foley finished her sentence, Jazz was sure they would be even redder…

"I'm afraid… they didn't… None of them made it. I'm… so sorry." Mrs. Foley finished, wiping away a few stray tears. Silence erupted in the hallway then, and no one said a word, their eyes boring into Sam, who once again had tears streaming down her face. Danny wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him, swallowing as he tried to come up with something to say. What could he say, though? He knew she wouldn't want him patronizing her, he knew she wouldn't want meaningless words, but what could he say that would mean something? That would mean something to _her?_ What could he say that wouldn't sound totally stupid and insensitive?

Sam tried wiping the tears away, smudging her make-up even more than it already was, but they just kept coming, – _damnit_, why did they keep _coming_? Anger rose up in her chest and she fought the urge to scream, why couldn't she just get a hold of herself? Why couldn't she swallow her stupid tears and ask the questions that were pounding against the inside of her head? Why couldn't she just find out what happened? Why was everyone so fucking quiet? Why were they just standing there watching her cry? Why weren't they asking the questions she couldn't? God, why couldn't she just stop crying already! She turned then and threw herself against Danny's chest, she didn't care anymore how much her make-up smudged or how dirty she was getting his shirt, she just wanted to be some place safe, someplace where she knew she had someone looking out for her and not just looking _at_ her, gauging her reaction to everything and hiding things from her, trying to spare her. And somehow, that place turned out to be in Danny's arms. The only place in the world she felt whole anymore.

"Oh, Sam…" Danny sighed, wrapping his arms around her, knowing this was better than any words he could come up with in a million years.

Behind him, his parents moved to the front of the group and stood between them and the Foleys. His mother put her hand on his shoulder and looked out to the reception kiosk, somewhere around the kiosk and the ER there was a waiting room, as it was, with a bunch of chairs and some vending machines, she wondered if it wouldn't be better for Danny to just take Sam there and wait while she and the rest of the grown-ups worked everything out. As sad as this was and as challenging as things were going to be for Sam from that moment on, there were still things that needed tending to, legal things such as Sam's guardianship, her parents' will, funereal arrangements, there were family members to contact and so many other things…

No one expected Sam, of all people, to attend to those sort of things, and Maddie wasn't even sure that Sam would _want_ to talk about any of that at the moment – No, she was almost sure she wouldn't. So maybe it would be better if she and Danny – and Tucker and Jazz, too, for that matter – went off for a bit while they worked through whatever they could. And of course, Maddie still wanted to know what had happened exactly…

"Wait, so, can I ask? What happened? How did they die?" Tucker asked his parents suddenly, sensing that Mrs. Fenton was about to send them off. Danny glared at him over Sam's head as she tightened her grip on his shirt, it wasn't that she didn't want to know, it was just that she wasn't _ready_ to know. Not now, not when she was already such a God damn mess.

"I…" Mrs. Foley looked to the Fentons, sending Maddie in particular a look that asked whether she thought it was appropriate to talk about it just yet in front of Sam. Maddie just shook her head, though; this was neither the time nor place for such matters.

"Not now, Tucker. Later." His mother finally told him. He looked defeated but accepted her answer, looking back to Sam and Danny. No, he agreed, it probably wasn't the time for that, was it? Damn.

"There's a waiting room around here somewhere – why don't you kids go find it and wait for us there? Are any of you hungry? Here, I'll give you some money for snacks. Jazz, you go with them, alright? Keep an eye on things?" Mrs. Fenton said, handing her daughter some bills from her pocket. Jazz nodded obediently, stuck the money in her pants pocket, and turned to the others. Tucker just shrugged and turned around, waiting for Danny to peel himself off Sam so they could follow as well. If there hadn't been an audience, Tucker was sure Danny would have just used his ghost powers to get Sam someplace away from all this mess until she calmed down a bit, but as it was that was not an option at the moment, so Danny carefully pried Sam off him, hooked his arm around her waist and began to lead her away, following Jazz and Tucker away from their parents.

Jazz led them just around the corner to where a map was posted on the wall to study it for a second, trying to figure out where they were in relation to where everything else was and where that damn waiting room was...

Danny leaned up against the wall near her studying eyes, Sam doing the same next to him, her head resting carefully on his shoulder as she tried not to cry any more than she already was. Chancing a glance around the room to study what else this hospital had to offer – other than death and suffering, of course – a cool wisp of air escaped his lips, making him freeze on the spot. Narrowing his eyes, he gave the room a thorough once over, trying to find who the hell he was sensing to see if it was worth it to leave Sam in the hands of Jazz and Tucker while he took care of whoever had the _gall_ to show their ugly mug on this dreadful day. The whole room, however, seemed to be ghost-free, so he wondered if maybe he was just _cold_ or stressed or whatever, but then, right next to Sam, he saw a pair of glowing red eyes suddenly vanish and an evil cackle resonate in his ears, sending shivers down his spine.

He didn't recognize the eyes, but whoever they belonged to, they meant _business_. And Danny was willing to be money that _they_ had caused the "accident" that caused the deaths of Sam's parents and grandmother. He also knew one other thing about them…

Whoever they were, they were going to seriously _pay_ for what they had done.

And this time, _Danny_ _meant business._

* * *

**So. Who else loved the ending of this chapter? The part with the red eyes and the evil laugh and the whole, "Mother fucker's gonna pay" thing? I'm sorry, but that was awesome! I don't care who you are, that was _bad-ass_.  
**

**Now I'm sure there is a ton else you could say about this chapter and I'm sure you have quite a few questions, most of which I'm also sure will be answered shortly. Or eventually. Or never. I don't _actually_ know yet; once again, I'm just sort of playing this fic by ear. Anyway, I'm sure you noticed that while I mentioned Jack a handful of times, he didn't actually have any lines in this chapter, and that bugged _me_, so I can only imagine how you all must be feeling. Especially all you Jack fans out there – don't deny you exist, I see you all back there in the corner, eye-balling Jack and secretly wishing Maddie would get together with Vlad so you could have Jack all to yourselves. That's right, I'm on to you. But sweetheart, Jack is a married man; you're just going to have to get over it and go after Danny like the rest of us; if _we_ got over him, so can _you_. Now, I know that might seem hard because of his obsession with ham, ghosts, and fudge, but it _is_ possible. I promise. **

**Alright, in all seriousness now, the reason Jack didn't have any lines here is because I didn't know what he would say in a situation like this, so let's all just pretend that he had too much fudge in his mouth to really say anything this chapter, m'kay? And in exchange for your cooperation, I promise I will work on getting Jack a few lines in the next chapter. Deal? Good, now on to other matters.**

**I'm sure you must be wondering what some of the questions you should be asking yourselves right about now are, right? Good thing, too, because I'm going to name a few for you:**

**Are Sam's parents _really_ dead?**

**Who killed them?**

**What was this so-called "accident" that "killed" them?**

**Who is going to be Sam's guardian now that her folks are "dead"?**

**Will I ever stop putting quotation marks around "accident," "killed," and/or "dead?" **

**What's going to happen next?**

**I feel as though I should tell you that out of those six questions, I can say with complete confidence that I know the answers to three of them, and I know _half-a_nswers to the other three. Just to let you know where I'm at with that. If any of you would like to take a whack at answering any of those questions yourself, feel free to drop me a PM or a review with said answers; I'm dying to know your theories...**

**And one more thing before I go: This chapter's title was inspired by the following lyrics from yet another song by The Script – in case you didn't already know this, they're my favorite band. Parachute is my second favorite band, but we'll get to that – and it's called "Exit Wounds" which is, again, off their second album "Science & Faith." Amazing song, amazing band, amazing album, go check it out. So, here are the lyrics that I think best fit this chapter, and if you disagree, be sure to let me know _why_:**

_And it hurts so bad  
That I search my skin_  
_For the entry point_  
_Where love went in_  
_It ricocheted and bounced around_  
_And left a hole when you walked out, yeah_

_I'm falling through the doors of the emergency room_  
_Can anybody help me with these exit wounds?_  
_I don't know how much more love this heart can lose_  
_And I'm dying, dying from these exit wounds_

**Be sure to let me know what you think!**

_Always,_  
_~Hisa-Ai~_


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